Avia bill: digital industry organizations express disappointment

The digital industry’s professional organizations (ASIC, Syntec numérique and TECH IN France) express their disappointment at this missed opportunity to reach a consensus that preserves the necessary balance and responds constructively to the legitimate questions raised by the European Commission on the initial version of the text.

The trade associations would like to emphasize that the version of the bill that emerged from the Senate debates guaranteed the necessary balance between protecting victims of online hate on the one hand, and protecting freedom of expression on the other.

Thus, by retaining the twenty-four hour deadline in Article 2, with the CSA as guarantor, the text retains its initial ambition while proportioning it to the information and resources available to the digital platforms concerned.

In addition, the senators rightly pointed out the need to address the viral dimension of online hate content beyond the thresholds in question. In this respect, the associations wish to emphasize that it is up to society as a whole to assume its responsibilities in the face of unfulfilled convictions of “online hate professionals”.
The digital industry’s professional organizations therefore solemnly call on Members of Parliament to take these points into account during the second reading in the National Assembly. We believe it is important to take the European Commission’s comments into consideration to ensure the best possible legal security for this text.

We hope that these issues will be sufficiently taken into account in the final version of the bill, and that the necessary balances will be effectively preserved to ensure its applicability. The professional organizations remain at the disposal of the Government and parliamentarians for a consultation meeting that could lead to an effective compromise.